BBC America HD added to Time Warner Cable So Cal!

December 2, 2009 by macguitarman

I received a letter from TWC So Cal several weeks ago stating that they would be adding a bunch of HD channels, BBC America HD being one of them and that they would be active sometime in early December.

BBC America HD (as well as  other HD channels) were actually available much earlier than that, (I have been watching BBC America HD for a few weeks now).

So yes, Robin Hood in 16:9 HD, is now available on Time Warner Cable So Cal (Los Angeles), awesome!

The Robin Hood Series Finale airs this Saturday night at 6:00 pm, on BBC America HD

Robin Hood Season 3 Premieres Sept. 12th, Get Time Warner Cable Los Angeles to Add the HD BBC America Channel

August 13, 2009 by macguitarman

If you are a fan of the BBC TV series Robin Hood, Season 3 finally premieres in the U.S. on September 12th, 2009.

But if you are on Time Warner Cable in Los Angeles you stil Do Not Have the HD channel of BBC America, still only the lame SD.

Not Good Enough Time Warner. You have to do better.

In order to get it, we have to get the the attention of management at Time Warner Cable Los Angeles.

https://www.timewarnercable.com/SoCal/about/contactus.ashx

Go here and flood their email boxes, it hopefully will get management’s attention and deliver the HD channel of BBC America.

And while they are at it how about Time Warner adding the NFL Network already after all these years, Comcast has.

News: New Final Cut Studio (2009?) Out Today, Snow Leopard, Open CL?

July 23, 2009 by macguitarman

News: New Final Cut Studio Out Today!

http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/

Awesome stuff, when I get a chance to go over  all the cool new features, I’ll post my thoughts here

The big question many are waiting for (well at least me, I would think others would be also),

Has this new Final Cut Studio (Final Cut Pro 7 and Compressor 3.5) been compiled to take advantage of the soon coming Snow Leopard Open CL technology?

I would think so since the Open CL spec has been championed by Apple for  while now and Apple got the spec ratified in only 6 months (when it can typically take years).

I have been saying Open CL is the real “secret  sauce” in Snow Leopard.

GPU’s (nVidia / AMD-ATi), can perform trillions of calculations per second, versus the fastest CPU’s (Intel Xeons, etc) doing billions of calculations per second, that is a 1000 fold increase, for your information, huge!

That is super computer area, typically requiring computer “clustering” (read: lots of expensive, bulky hardware, complex configs, data centers, heat, you get the picture).

Applications written to take advantage of Open CL would send these processes to the GPU instead of the CPU, that is the idea.

It makes too much sense that Apple would use this new Final Cut Studio 2009 release (Compressor 3.5 transcodes and Final Cut Pro 7 renderings) as the flagship application to showcase  Open CL.

Right now (as many Compressor 3 users already know, a one hour ProRes movie , for example, transcoded in Compressor 3, as H.264 , can take 2 to 5 times longer!

I said Longer not Shorter than real time.

Even on the fastest Mac Pro, that is 2 to 5 hours.

Yes, of course one can use Apple’s Qmaster to make a Virtual Cluster and take advantage of the Xeon cores [instances].

I am betting that Open CL/GPU is going to prove vastly faster than even 16 instances/cores of the fastest Intel Xeon chips, again we’ll see when Snow Leopard ships.

Interesting Note: Intel’s new Hyperthreading technology on the new Xeon Mac Pros, is being utilized even in the current Leopard 10.5x and Qmaster.

Intel’s new Hyperthreading technology allows for 2 threads per processor core, 2 threads x’s 8 cores = essentially 16 cores (instances) in Apple’s Qmaster.

I will perform and post speed tests on that soon.

With Open CL will we see 1000 times speed up?

We’ll see.

If we see a 5x speed up it will be a welcomed miracle.

Right now Compressor 3 is 2-5 times LONGER, (going in the wrong direction).

A one hour H.264 transcode completed in even 12 minutes or so, would be that welcomed miracle.

What’s Up with the Tivo HD and No HD (Hi Rez) GUI?

July 22, 2009 by macguitarman

An Observation:

Being accustomed to the Apple TV 2 GUI, and its beautiful HD (Hi Rez) text, graphics and images, I was shocked that Tivo HD doe not offer this.

After several years of a Tivo HD product, can the Tivo people actually utilize Hi Rez/HD, text and graphics.

The text and graphics are jagged and grainy, not HD, whereas the Apple TV, full HD text, graphics, images, more than likely output as 480.

I am guessing Tivo uses Photoshop to design the GUI, it is too much trouble to do it in a 1920 x 1080 HD layout.

Get to work Tivo!

Tivo HD: Swap the 160 Hard Drive for a 750 GB, Thanks to Engadget HD

July 22, 2009 by macguitarman

Thanks to Engadget HD

Per this article,

http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/17/how-to-upgrade-your-tivo-hd-with-winmfs/

Worked like a champ with the WinMFS application, And…

It can be done on a Mac.  A Mac Pro in this case with Windows XP installed using Boot Camp.

For me, sure beat the heck out of going to a PC box and and having to find / buy a SATA II card and install it, forget it.

The SATA II hard drive sliding bays in the Mac Pro do the trick nicely, all you need to do is attach the drive trays to your hard drives.

The WinMFS tool saw the 160 source Tivo hard drive and a 750 GB Western Digital target hard drive. Took about  12 minutes to finish the clone copy.

Also, I quit WinMFS after and reselected the 750 GB Tivo cloned drive,  and looked at the info on the drive and wa la, it reported it as Format = Tivo Series2/3. Perfect.

Installed it back into the Tivo HD and hooked it up to my HD TV. Powered up the Tivo, and the Tivo says, “Just a Moment”, (booting).

The colors were faded, and I was momentarily concerned that the clone did not fully work, that the Tivo HD may not boot. But the colors switched to the proper full colors and it booted up fine.

Tivo reported, 106 hours of HD recording time. Just what I wanted.

Again, thanks to Engadget HD and WinMFS

On another subject. I actually left Tivo for several years and am now back.

The Journey is the Thing, Live in the Now, Connect to Source

July 15, 2009 by macguitarman

The Journey is the Thing!”

Live and Love the Process (of Life)! This is the whole point, get to feeling good about this process and this process only. This is the whole point, the only point.

Focus on the having of it, the enjoyment of the having of it. You feel good, or better, then that’s it. You feel bad or worse (this is the indication you are not focusing on the having, the joy of the having, but something other. Go back to the better feeling.

Present moment Awareness, the Now! Living in the Now, there is really only the Now.

Cesar Milan (the Dog Whisperer, who I find totally fascinating), says, Dogs only know Present Moment, that is the instinctive and natural dog life state.

Humans can and must learn this from dogs.

Humans, with the ego (mind) go to the past (sadness), or future (fear, anxiety). Both are tricks to distract from connection to the Now and Source. The mind set on the Now, is the mind connected to Source, it is one with Source, and our natural balanced, peaceful, abundant state.

Howard Wills, Forgiveness, Peacemaking, Los Angeles 2008

August 16, 2008 by macguitarman

I also recently saw Howard Wills in Los Angeles (Cheviot Hills). I have been into metaphysics for many many years, and I came away from this a changed person. I (was) way too cerebral, abundance is all about feeling, and living life by this feeling.

This forgiveness and prayers have opened me big time. I had no physical ailments, or major ones, but work / career, which really is ones expression, purpose.

He worked on me in the audience and he told me, how about 20, I said, million, he said billion, it shocked me, but he opened me and kept opening me, removing fear and giving love. I could feel the infusion of love and light. I am so glad he began the whole night with, “We are a mainly feeling and live your life your own way”, really the 2 things I really had been struggling my whole life. Man, awesome, a great prescription.

I work in the corp world, doing computer engineering, And I am a Musician (Guitarist). I have come to peace with this sort of dual parallel career. It’s fun. Christiane Schull enlightened me a few years ago to bless all situations in ones life and Howard echoed this also, and I have been doing this for a few years, and it has been great.

The universe will of course give me (us) what we want, in my case, artistic and business, and financial independence and outlets of expression, being a creator, and leader.

And after this meeting, I have this weird feeling, a very good feeling, that I do not have to try so hard at this, I can and should relax.

This great clearing, clarity, and newly discovered calmness has overcome me, it has actually shocked me.

After Howard’s meeting, this clarity and abundance feeling is still with me months later. Howard shows you how to instantly connect with the divine, you know that feeling and you know when you are away from that, and you get back to that good feeling.

I kind of fell into computer engineering and over the last 12 plus years, I am growing, it is evolving, growing, moving onward, transmuting. I don’t have to try that hard. Just follow the good feeling, in my body. Be in my heart and body, not so much in the mind / analytical.

I have this awareness now, that if you have by default used your mind, ego, and thinking to guide your life (this is of course very possible and still can garner success), but, since in that mode you are not really truly Connected to Source or your true self, at least in my case, you feel unfulfilled, lost, confused, typically in constant struggle and exhausted from all the effort. Source and Nature Do Not Struggle, it is impossible.

Follow your bliss (As Joseph Campbell says). And you know you are on the right path because it is Easy(ier), just really full of grace, like someone else or some other power is doing it. It feels wonderful, and of course it feels Blissful, full of joy, grace, power and clarity. That is the sign of the the Connection, the Connected State.

The divine is connected to from the heart, and if you have learned to disconnect from your heart, (which I did and many do, due to pain, etc) you have cut yourself off from full abundance, knowing, peace, joy.

Howard said, “Ask the light to guide you, direct you”. Which I am going to do, how easy, just ask the universe. He also said, God gives big gifts, but if you don’t accept them, receive, them you dont get to keep them, so just be open to the guiding. It’s like the universe wants to give these great things, but we have to be detached, pliable, calm and still, open.

I am actually quite excited and still at peace and calmness, and from this state, I know all things will happen, it is so joyful, but even more that I am shocked, by letting go, it is now so easy, I feel this wonderful sense of peace and ease, like I go thru my day, being directed, still passionate, but calm easy. I really don’t know where it will go next, and even Howard said, don’t worry about it, you don’t have to know how. But I know I am connected and I feel great.